5E Assumptions

As I wrote Tuesday, the weekend was fairly busy for Yours Truly. Rest assured that D&D continues in one form or another 'round my house, but this weekend we'll be traveling to Skagit County for a three day soccer tournament, so who knows when I'll have the chance to write again...figured I should get something up on Ye Old Blog NOW, while I can.

Last Wednesday (before school let out) we had Diego's buddy Kieran over to the house. Kieran is a kid that Diego introduced to D&D the previous school year (I believe at the time it was still just B/X) but who then went out and got the 5E books and started playing in a 5E game, much to my son's chagrin. Back in February, Kieran expressed interest in starting up his own 5E campaign, but it ended up falling through as these things tend to do. Kieran, all things considered, isn't really cut out for the role of "DM" at this point in his life. He'd much rather just sit down and play.

So we offered him the chance to play in our campaign. Here's how it went:

At the time, the players were still in Coeur d'Alene ("Orlane"), tidying up some last bits before starting their new "boat adventure." As this was Kieran's first time playing 1E...and because I was making lunch for the kids...Diego led him through the character creation process (standard Option I procedure from the DMG). He was trying for a paladin, but couldn't quite make the scores and ended up settling for a human ranger. And UN-like our usual practice, I gave the character 4,600 x.p. (50% of the party average) for a number of expedient reasons:

• While this was Kieran's first time playing AD&D, he wasn't an unexperienced gamer...he's been playing 5E for about a year and has had characters in the teens.
• It brought the character up to 3rd level, comparable to the other party members, adding survivability while not grossly affecting overall effectiveness.
• I expected Kieran would NOT end up being a regular member of our campaign (as he was already involved in a weekly 5E game). If he does in the future, we will - of course! - have him create a new 1st level character.

Finally, I thought that the party would be adventuring in MY "Ravenloft" (rewritten for levels 3rd to 5th) and I didn't want him getting one-shot by a half-vampire.

However, we never made it there. 

Our "warm-up" for the session came courtesy of the Inn of the Golden Grain (still in N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God). A secret room in the inn cellars had a barred door that the party had not taken the time to investigate prior to their abduction by (and subsequent conquest of) the titular cult of the adventure. While the party discussed mounting an excursion (while swilling wine and victuals procured from the inn's larder), who should enter the inn but a wandering ranger looking for adventure! "Revlin" was quickly enlisted for the task at hand.

Down into the cellar went our brave adventurers, searching after an ivory idol that one-time cult member (now loyal henchman) Misha had memories of. The network of tunnels beneath the inn were crude, narrow, and only recently dug out, only (occasionally) widening into large caves. For the most part, the cramped conditions required single-file lines and stooping to avoid low ceilings. "Hey, Revlin: what kind of weapons are you proficient with?"

Well, my main weapon is the two-handed sword. That's a 'greatsword,' right? 

"Um, yes, but you're not going to be able to swing it very well (or at all) in these conditions. Two-handed swords are a lot more useful in the open than in underground environments. What else do you have?"

I've got a (horseman's) flail, too.

*sigh*

The ranger ended up walking point, light crossbow in hand. However, it wasn't long before found their way into a large(r) cavern, able to spread out a bit.

At which point a giant constrictor dropped from the ceiling, achieving complete surprise. Random roll determined that it landed on the ranger.

[the adventure location has the constrictor wrapped around a rafter and achieving surprise with a whopping 5-in-6 (!) chance. Rangers, of course, reduce the normal chance of surprise from 2 to 1. After adjustments, it still ended up being 2 full segments of surprise]

Fortunately, the other party members have excellent response times (high DEX). While the ranger literally "flailed away" (he got out his flail and tried to whack the thing...to no avail) his companions stabbed the snake repeatedly with short swords and daggers. The serpent snapped at the harriers repeatedly even as it continued to constrict its coils around the hapless ranger....

He was saved, healing was provided via the party cleric (no "short rests" I'm afraid) and play continued. More exploration, the elf now walking point. Cursory inspections of "empty" caves and wariness (ceiling checks!) became watchwords of the party. They avoided spending time in partially collapsed chambers (avoiding the concealed mudvipers that lay in wait) and eventually stumbled upon a huge ivory carving of the naga "god." Realizing it was too large to carry, they broke it into several large chunks, filling their bag of holding with as much ivory as it could hold and vowing to return for the rest. They then proceeded to search for the exit.

And instead wandered into a huge chamber filled with several cadaverous humanoids, hissing at them with drooling, hungry eyes and brandishing filthy claws.

"I've got this!" declared the courageous ranger, dropping his crossbow and pulling his two-hander from its back scabbard. The party dropped back, hurling daggers, as the ranger advanced upon the foes, sword in hand. I think the ghouls hit him 7 or 8 times? I know he was paralyzed by the end of the 1st round (even though I only require one save per creature, rather than one save per successful attack).

The cleric attempted to turn the monsters but failed, and the party was forced to do battle with mace and blade. Fortunately, elvish blood and well-worn iron carried the day: the ghouls were destroyed and the party set a watch till the ranger revived and they could exit the catacombs. 

All told, it was a good haul of treasure, and the party was most satisfied with having secured the cellars of their newly acquired tavern. Revlin agreed to accompany them on their upcoming voyage via ship, and even contributed to the cost of the ballista ("We have a ship in our 5E game, too! It has three magic canons and an aboleth chained to the bottom!"), though some party members had doubts about the young ranger's overall effectiveness. In total, he'd inflicted two points of damage over two encounters while sustaining 28 points of damage himself. 

Kieran DID have fun, however.

; )

Critical Mass

Critical Mass: the minimum size or amount of something required to start or maintain a venture.

*****

My players are, somewhat miraculously, still alive and fighting their way back to the surface after defeating "the reptile god." Mud choked hallways and wandering monsters (not to mention a lack of map/direction) has made it a tough slog, but they just found a stairway up and slew the troglodyte guardians camouflaged at the top. Total butcher's bill (to date): one assassin, one innkeeper, one spirit naga, seven troglodytes, one carrion crawler, and two ghouls...the latter of whom managed to achieve  complete surprise, popping out of the mud to rake and rend. 

However, as written before, elves have their advantages in AD&D. Immunity to ghoul paralysis in one. High dexterity (negating surprise segments) is another. Which is all to the good when your 3rd level NPC cleric has a DEX of 9, no armor, and tends to be bum-rushed before she can get off a spell or turning attempt.

[quick fun fact: on the surface, hold person looks like a pretty powerful 2nd level spell for a cleric to stock...until you notice the 5 segment casting time. That's an absolute killer when dicing for initiative in close quarters (i.e. your standard dungeon crawling environment); 25 seconds of chanting is way more likely to be interrupted when a baddie can step up and hit you with its stone axe]

But even Misha has survived to date, and her ability to cast continual light has proven a godsend (no pun intended), even if her mace has been less accurate than the PCs' blades. If they make it out of the dungeon, I might consider her continuing to tag along with the party...especially given the awkwardness of staying in a village where she's a known participant in murder, kidnapping, human sacrifice, probably cannibalism, etc. (all while under the naga's influence...but still).

SO...the players are doing well, they've both hit 3rd level by this point and have hopes of even more advancement once they get all this treasure out of the dungeon. The most successful characters they've ever advanced in AD&D is 5th level, and I think they have a real shot at surpassing that mark...they're playing their characters well, and playing well together (in combination). 

All of which is exactly what I want. It may be frustrating to a player to have to roll up a new character after their 1st - 3rd PC gets slain but, respectfully, it is far more a burden to the Dungeon Master (me). I want to have more content than just goblins and bandits and giant rats. Wracking my brain to justify yet another encounter with skeletons, so low level clerics can "do something" is a pain in the ass that I don't really want to deal with.  That stuff is peanuts...small change...compared to the possibilities of D&D.

And yet, "paying dues" is a necessary part of the system...it is, in fact, imperative to the growth and development of the players. Players need to learn the system: what works, what doesn't, how to interact with it and survive and thrive. When you (the DM) allows that to occur...that natural growth, including all the "growing pains" (failure, death, etc.)...it allows everyone, players AND referee, to elevate their game. 

"Killing machine."

But it's rough when one misstep, or one string of bad die rolls, can upend the whole applecart. "We're killing machines!" exclaimed my boy after they managed to cut down yet another group of trogs (with no losses). And so they are. But they're still lost in a hostile, subterranean environment, less-than-full strength on hit points, and completely out of healing magic. Things aren't entirely rosy.

What I'm hoping to reach with my campaign is some sort of critical mass...a point of equilibrium wherein I'm not terribly worried about an accidental TPK. I've reached this before with campaigns...usually somewhere around 9th or 10th level...and it is what I consider to be "the sweet spot" of AD&D. All due respect to folks who like to live in the 5th-7th level range, it's still too easy for things to fall apart on such a group...you're still (as a Dungeon Master) quite limited at what you can throw at the party. Dragons, for example...at least the larger, older ones...are probably out of the question. Throwing an ancient green at a group under level eight is giving a coin-flip's chance of having to re-rack the whole thing!

No, give me a couple fighter types with hit points in the 50-60+ point range; give me spell casters with a minimum of a dozen or 15 spells of various utility. Give me a thief with a 65-80% success rate and a cleric who can raise dead and that has at least a chance of turning all the undead on the board. Give me all that...and I can start cooking. Given those ingredients? I can make one heck of a meal.

Success in D&D begets success. Low level characters can adventure with high level characters and advance quickly, becoming solid contributors to the group's success. Copious amounts of treasure is readily spent on equipping and outfitting...not to mention magic like restoration and resurrection. High level characters are far more self-motivated, having both the resources and capabilities to contribute to the game world: establishing bases, garnering influence, crafting magic items, developing networks of followers. Such players help sustain the campaign itself, even as the DM is forced to expand and grow the scope of the setting to accommodate their desires.

Critical mass.

It's not a pipe dream...I've seen it before. So have many others; there's a reason why many of the most highly regarded adventure modules are designed for characters circa 10th level...that's the place where a well-run campaign really starts to hum. For advanced D&D play, it's not the "endgame;" it's the starting point for self-sufficiency. For sustentation. For establishing a foundation on which can be built "the long haul."

It takes patience. I'm not a patient person. But the patience is necessary for the players to learn and for DMs to sharpen their craft. My players still need some training up..."killing machines?" Indeed. But they're not out of the swamp yet. Let's just focus on making it back alive...and successful.

We've got a couple kids coming over to the house Friday. Of course the intention is to play D&D (one has already participated in a couple of our games). More bodies for the pyre, I suppose...but I'm hopeful my kids have developed enough as players that they'll be able to help their buddies survive and thrive and grow, too. We'll see. I suppose that's at least as likely as the whole party getting TPK'd (again).

More later. Dog needs to be walked.

Explictica Defilus

I've run N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God a few times over the years...mostly as a B/X adventure (see these ancient posts, if interested) but at least one time as an AD&D adventure in the early 2000s (before this blog was even a "thing"). That was for my buddy, Kris, but we were both pretty drunk if I recall correctly and I'd never even read the thing...I was just trying to run it as best I could while simultaneously skimming it. A very abbreviated session that didn't go anywhere (as one might imagine).

Welp now, as previously mentioned, I'm running it for my kids, per their request. Haven't yet got around to posting my "first level problems" post (eventually, eventually) but one of the things about playing "no-hold-barred" AD&D: characters die. Sometimes all of them. And then you're left scrounging for low-level resources when what you'd ACTUALLY like to be doing is sending them up against frost giants and kuo-toa.

*sigh*

N1, as I've blathered in the past, has a lot going for it. It also has a lot of problems, especially power curve versus low level adventurers of the type for which it's intended. Some of these things it tries to fix on its own (including a 7th level "ringer" NPC wizard to accompany/aid the PCs); some of it are fixed by getting the rules correct (spirit nagas impersonating deities don't grant clerical spells, so converted clerics shouldn't have any). But still, given the scope of the adventure, I'd hardly call it a scenario for "novice" players...more an intermediate (or tougher!) module for experienced players using low-level characters.

Enter the PCs.

"Investigation" is not my kids' strong suit: problem solving, negotiation, ally building, bold action is their more usual modus operandi. N1 expects players to investigate the town and figure out what's going wrong with it. My players are just looking for adventure. It's definitely not the perfect marriage...they aren't curious about "plot" and "backstory" even when such things might provide them with clues or aid in their problem solving. Here's how things have gone down thus far in our play of N1:

Two zero x.p., first level characters...Salamander the elven assassin and Potter the half-elf fighter...enter the town of Coeur D'Alene drawn by rumors of mysterious disappearances and goings on in the community. After gaining rooms at the Slumbering Serpent Inn, inquiries got them directed to the nearby hut of local eccentric Ramne who, while friendly enough, was rather cryptic and tight-lipped in his conversation. Deciding the old hermit was a dead end they decided to explore the town and, finding the prices at the Golden Grain Inn to be more reasonable, shifted base.

At this point, running low on coins after one too many "simple suppers" the PCs were only too happy to partake of innkeeper Bertrem's free drinks, even as they hobnobbed and traded barbs with the greasiest-looking scallywag at the bar (Derek Desleigh, 4th level assassin). Beginning to feel groggy, and suspecting they'd been drugged, Potter retired to their bedroom while Sal went down to the river to soak his head and sober up. He returned to the Golden Grain Inn just before sundown but found his room empty, his traveling companion vanished into thin air!

Rather than investigate further, Sal decided to wait until midnight, when the inn was shut down for the evening...he then crept downstairs and began a search of the empty common room. Picking the lock on the kitchen door led him to a cellar stair that he descended torch in hand and sword drawn. At first, little of interest was discovered, until his elvish senses detected a secret door that led to a hidden room where he found the odious Derek standing guard over a hog-tied and hooded Potter! Combat ensued, and Derek was defeated by sheer dint of luck and tenacity. Potter was released and the assassin's body searched for goodies, but little was found besides the fiend's short sword and dagger, with which the half-elf armed himself.

The stout, barred door in the corner of the hidden room was ignored in favor of the ladder leading to an obvious trapdoor, which Salamander pushed through, sword in hand. The trapdoor gave way to a bedroom, where a sleeping figure was stirring in a large bed. Sal drove his shortsword through the man's belly before he could fully rouse and a lighted candle revealed the fat innkeeper's startled and death-stricken face, his bedsheets now pooling with blood. Searching a nearby armoire and finding nothing save clothes and a scabbarded longsword (which he took), the assassin descended through the trapdoor where he and Potter decided to "play it cool" and hope the authorities blamed the murder on the deceased Derek. They carefully closed up the secret room and made their way back to their own bedroom(!), there to slumber the remainder of the night.

Instead, they were rudely awakened some hours before dawn by scaly hands covering their mouths. Finding themselves assaulted by three troglodytes and a slim, hooded figure, Salamander decided to struggle using the dagger he kept close by. Unfortunately, his aim was poor and the trog was easily able to put the elf in a stranglehold (130# of elf is no match for a 180# reptile man in a wrestling match). The elf's bite was little more than a wasp's sting as the sleeper hold forced him into unconsciousness. Potter, meanwhile, surrendered and allowed himself to be bound and gagged once again.

After this, the captives were marched some 30 miles north and east, through hill and forest, into the swamplands surrounding Lake Pend Oreille. There they were brought to the very lair of the fiend, an island surrounded by muck and murk, the lake waters held back by a dike of mud and bramble and pinewood, a gaping hole in its center revealing wooden plank stairs descending into darkness.

Down, down, down the adventurers were led...down passages carved from wet, swollen earth and wretched mud. Through nightmarish tunnels, over subterranean lakes, past giant toads and snakes and cold-blooded maws of reptilian monsters (and worse) they were paraded till they reached yet another stairway, guarded by the same hateful troglodytes that forced them grimly on, ever deeper into the muddy labyrinth.

Past giant spiders and poisonous centipedes and walking corpses performing mindless routines, with the screams of captives echoing wetly through the muddy halls, they came at last to a huge underground cavern, yet another grotto of unknown origin, its vault held aloft by stone columns covered in a phosphorescent lichen, bathing all in a ghostly green light. A flat-bottomed barge was poled into the water, ferrying both captives and captors to the lone island where the adventurers would confront their destiny.

It was not a long wait. She slithered from the alcove almost at once, disgorging a shower of coins from the hoard of loot and spoils. Enormous in length, hideous in visage, ancient in her evil, Explictica Defilus the reptile god emerged into the ghastly illumination. 

Only an asshole
puts a spirit naga in
a 1st level adventure.

Salamander and Potter could only stand in awed silence as the spirit naga communed with their human captor, receiving a full report of the going ons in the inn, even while the troglodyte servitors emptied a chest of loot (including the characters') onto the ever-expanding pile. Finally, satisfied, the god focused her gaze on each of the adventurers in turn, swaying back and forth as she enslaved them to her will.

"You will replace my servants whom you have slain," she hissed at them in her sibilant tongue. "You shall assume the roles that they played, bringing me more slaves, more tribute, more worshippers to spread my cult. Only through your worship and servitude may you atone for this offense against my divine will. Now pick up your weapons, return to the surface, and do my bidding."  This the PCs hastened to do.

Except that Salamander had made his saving throw with a 17 and still possessed free will.

The elf only pretended to succumb to the naga's permanent charm ability. I guess I screwed up, because I only now remember and realize that both elves and half-elves have resistance to charm (in my defense, the players didn't remember/remind me either) so I'm glad that at least one of the party members made their save. Explictica, perhaps, might not have been fooled by the elf's false worship (she does, after all, have ESP as one of her spells), but a precedent had already been set earlier in the module itself with the person of Derek...the assassin pretending to be a worshipper despite NOT being charmed. So I let it stand...the PC wasn't doing anything to give it away anyway (running, attacking, etc.). 

SO...pretending to worship the naga and doing her will, the assassin slowly gathered his weapons, studying the creature even as he got within sword's reach...and decided to try assassinating the monster!

A surprise roll was made for Explictica, with a roll of "2" indicating complete surprise. Per the PHB, "if [assassins] surprise (q.v.) a victim, they may attack on the ASSASSINATION TABLE...the assassin decides which attack mode he or she will use: assassination, back stabbing, or normal melee combat." Diego (playing Salamander) elected assassination. The chance of a 1st level assassin auto-killing a 9 HD creature is 10%. Diego rolled an 02...monster dead.

Oh my.

Explictica's death ended the charm effect on Misha (the cleric) and Potter, but not the troglodytes (who were understandably upset about the death of their god) and the scene turned into a general melee. However, the party emerged victorious; though not unscathed, all three survived and the trogs were cut down. The cleric, being freed of the naga's baleful influence immediately communed with her goddess, Merikka ('Merica?), and provided needed healing...even as the two PCs set about looting the naga's den. 

We stopped there. The tumult of rejoicing in the house pretty much precluded anything else.

; )

Non-Rants

My internet has been a bit spotty this morning, perhaps because of the high winds going on at the moment. But it's working now, so...yeah, no complaints.

This week has been a week of "no complaints" on Ye Old Blog. I've started 2-3 posts that just devolved into fiery rants...posts on guns and politics and the Mariners and current crop of gamers that (even when they're NOT completely clueless) fail to grok the point of AD&D...or any D&D really. None of these have been posted; they just sit on my draft board, staring at me, reminding me that I should probably post something to the blog. I am a blogger, after all.

But I don't want to rant. Ranting...real "ranting," like that of a lunatic...is a means of expressing frustration. It's a sign of helplessness in the face of something that you dislike, but are powerless to change. I just don't feel like putting myself in that mindset right now. Too weak.

That's the thing about gun owners right now...too many of them in the USA, at the moment (clearly). They have lots of reasons for owning guns...I was on a web site the other day that provided 101 reasons for why a private (non-military) citizen to own a battle rifle like the one that claimed the lives of 19 children under the age of 11 (plus their teachers). Lots of reasons...but none of them were good reasons. Most of them...well, all of them really...were based in fear. Or selfishness (self-centeredness). Or ignorance. But mainly fear. A feeling of weakness, of helplessness, of powerlessness and a driving need to do something to feel powerful. 

All of a sudden, it occurs to me why the pandemic has (in this country, where guns are laughingly easy to acquire) fueled an incredible surge in gun purchases. It's not just white supremacists buying guns because of panic over a BLM movement (which some have claimed). Gun ownership is up across ALL demographics. People feel powerless in the face of invisible killer viruses and government lockdowns and it's understandable how they'd try to do something to reclaim a feeling of power for themselves. 

Also explains (partly) my zero desire to own a gun: I already feel powerful most days. I'm a Dungeon Master, after all.

Yesterday, I cleaned the hell out of my house in anticipation of a couple kids coming over for a playdate. The nice thing about that means, a lot fewer chores to do today. Which is a good thing because the kids are getting off at noon to start a blessed three day weekend with very few scheduled obligations on the docket. The wife, of course, wants to "do" stuff...the kids and I are hoping to just stay home, chill out, and play some games. But for today (at least), I'm going to guess we'll have some leisure time.

I think I want to introduce the kids to a new RPG or two. Specifically, I'm considering Top Secret (my children have been reading a lot of "spy" novels lately) and/or Gamma World. Something light, something fun...a little adventurous and not much chargen/startup time. I brought up the idea this morning, as I drove them to school, and they were both excited at the prospect. 

We are still in the midst of N1, too, which is going...well, better than I expected. Sofia's character got drugged and kidnapped, but Diego managed to find her in the middle of the night (before she could be moved to the lair of the cultist's god), and actually managed to out-duel the 4th level assassin guarding her...all the more surprising when you consider his own character is only a 1st level assassin. Ah, AD&D...how you continually surprise me. Despite the level difference, they were fairly evenly matched when it came to a face-to-face fight: same ACs, same chance to hit (D. actually had a +1 with his shortsword due to "elf-ness"), and the bad guy's extra hit points meant little once Lady Luck stepped in. They escaped through the trapdoor in the ceiling, and murdered the villainous innkeeper before he could fully rouse himself from his sleep (a good surprise role there).

Unfortunately, they have yet to pick up a scrap of treasure. C'est la vie.

Anyway...I'm sure I'm boring folks. And I have some dishes to wash up and some RPGs to prep. Hope everyone has as happy a Friday as they can, depending on their personal circumstances. Love your loved ones, love yourselves, love your neighbors and your enemies (as best you can). And try not to be too afraid. We are ALL more powerful than we realize.

Working

Apologies for not posting recently. Currently working on something. 

Meanwhile: everyone's good in the 'hood round these parts. The kids want me to run them through N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God and I have agreed. It's our first venture into the "Idaho Deathlands" because (of course) Orlane might as well be Coeur d'Alene. Problema is, that I was using Potlatch for Hochoch which is ridiculous as Coeur d'Alene is about 50 times the size of Potlatch. Maybe Nampa? Except that Nampa isn't old enough (being founded after Coeur d'Alene)...

*sigh* I'll figure it out. Hopefully before their characters are all killed.

SO...busy, busy, busy.  More later.

Killing Gods, Part 4

All right…that’s a long enough break since my last post on “killing gods.” More than enough. 

As a precursor, I need a moment to talk about the relationship between clerics and deities; I realize this will seem yet another digression, but it’s pertinent to the conversation. You see, this whole subject came up because I was unsatisfied with the way I feel (many) adventure designs of recent years have been unreasonable with their treatment of gods…but it’s quite possible that this trend (and my preferences) come in part from learning different styles of play. 

I will elaborate.

I’ve written before about the shift in perspective of What Exactly A Cleric Is that came about in 1983 with the publication of the Mentzer version of Basic. As I’ve recounted (often enough) this was NOT the brand of D&D by which I learned the game. The clerics in my first campaign (which I ran up till circa 1988) didn’t receive their spells from “the strength of their beliefs.” No. Un-uh. Spells come from the gods they worship…they are divine favors, pure and simple, miracles granted by higher powers. 

This is, of course, EXPLICIT in the text. The 1981 Moldvay Basic set described it thusly:

Since clerical spalls are divinely given, they do not have to be studied; the cleric need only rest and pray for them.

"Divinely given" is the key phrase here. I can understand if there is some confusion caused by the actual description of the cleric class in Moldvay; its text ("...they are trained in fighting and casting spells. As a cleric advances in level, he or she is granted the use of more and more spells...") could be interpreted as meaning that their magic is separate from their deity, that magical training is something only those who are initiated into the cult's higher secrets are taught. But unless Moldvay is speaking metaphorically (I don't think he is), the phrase divinely given in the Spell section makes clear just who is "granting" access to clerical magic...not higher level priests and patriarchs, but the god or goddess whom the cleric serves.

And Gygax is even more clear in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide:

It is well known to all experienced players that clerics, unlike magic-users, have their spells bestowed upon them by their respective deities.

The DMG text (page 38) goes on for more than half a page detailing exactly how clerics receive their magic directly from their gods, either by being divinely empowered (1st and 2nd level spells), bestowed upon them through intermediaries (saints, angels, demigods, etc. for 3rd through 5th level spells), or granted by direct communication with the deity itself (6th and 7th level spells). It is not a cleric's "inner strength," "strong beliefs," or "mystical training" that allows the character to create miracles...it is the god itself. A cleric with no god receives no magic. Period.

As said, Mentzer changes this in his 1983 Basic rulebook...a book I never owned until the 2000s, and certainly not the book I learned to play with. But a subtle shift in thinking is evident in TSR's publications as early as 1982. I refer here to two classic modules published that year: N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God and B4: The Lost City. I imagine both modules might be held up as inspirations for the works of recent designers I cited earlier, examples of "sword & sorcery" style adventures featuring "godlike beings" who are nothing more than actual (non-divine) monsters needing to be killed...respectively a spirit naga named Explictica Defilus and the tentacled monstrosity known as Zargon. These false gods, whether through longevity and fear or powerful mind control, have created cults of worship around themselves, followers who hold them in awe and carry out their "divine will, much as one might expect of followers duped by a charlatan.

And yet both modules include actual cleric followers of these monsters...clerics with the ability to access clerical magic. N1 has multiple clerics of Explictica using spells of up to 4th level (7th level clerics). B4 features Darius, a 6th cleric (also with access to spells up to 4th level) of the "cult of Zargon" as one of the Big Bads of the adventure. None of these characters make sense under the rules of the game; none of these characters should have ANY spells whatsoever.

Contrast this with the backstory found in the 1980 module C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan:

Eventually a new Archon mounted the throne in Pontylver, one who claimed [lawful neutral] Alia as her patron. The Temple of the Correct and Unalterable Way grew in followers and prestige, and as time passed, Myrrha noticed that her peers and superiors were becoming increasingly arrogant and arbitrary....Myrrha saw they were falling into the heresy of believing that law is concentrated in the individual and not the community. Investigating, she discovered a well-kept secret: many members of the ecclesiarchy were no longer able to cast high-level spells, thus proving their estrangement from their deity!

If N1 was properly designed (that is, written to follow the instructions laid out in the rule books), neither Abramo nor Misha would have access to clerical spells above 2nd level (and maybe not even those) and Gareth Primo would have no magic at all because a spirit naga is not a god and, thus, not capable of granting spells.

That is the game, folks, and I honestly don't think it's "open to interpretation." But...perhaps because of "satanic panic" pressure over the pretending to worship strange gods (see the 1982 Mazes and Monsters where Tom Hanks plays a batshit-crazy cleric)...TSR started to move away from its own rules. Started to say, hey, being a cleric isn't really about worshipping a god, it's about your character's training and "strong beliefs" manifesting powers...you're just a magic-user in priest's clothing and it doesn't matter whether you're worshipping the One True God or some tentacled space slug that crashed on the planet a thousand years ago. We aren't teaching children about the worship of strange pagan gods...heavens, no! There is no god except God, these are just strangely deluded fantasy priests. Pay no attention!

And you see that carried all the way down to today's designers. From Jason Sholtis's magnificent Operation Unfathomable:

...clerics operate under the delusion that their deities actually exist (they do not!). In truth, clerics are merely a distinct variety of magic-user, devoted to one or more of the ten thousand Gods of Order. Clerics manipulate chaos to achieve their results through the mental constructs of their religious practices, rather than rote memorization of arcane mummery.

From 2017's Lamentations of the Flame Princess (James Raggi):

Cleric magic is divinely inspired, and is granted to Clerics through prayer. Whether these powers are granted to Clerics by higher powers, if these higher powers are what the Cleric believes them to be, or if all Cleric spells are merely ritualized forms of sympathetic magic, are all subjects frequently debated...

I would include the 2018 adventure The Red Prophet Rises in this mix of confusion, in which a heretical priest (Khazra), mistakenly worshipping an ancient vampiric entity, still (inexplicably) retains access to the spells of a 6th level cleric of "the Bull God." Why? Is the Obelisk that Thirsts a divine entity? No. Does it serve the Bull God? No. One would think spells would be withheld from the priest, if only to inform him of his delusional apostasy.  Guy uses a sword in combat anyway.

These authors (and others) seem to have been influenced somewhat by these later (post-1982) influences when it comes to explaining the relationship between clerics and their gods. Which is to say, there is little relationship, if any. Any failure of clerical magic can simply be attributed to the cleric losing faith in herself: it is not the deity that withholds magic, but the cleric's own psychological barriers to accessing a purely internal mechanism. 

I'm not a big fan of that interpretation. It doesn't jibe with the D&D I learned to play. It is not the AD&D of Gygax; it runs counter to the DMG and the information found in Deities & Demigods. And while I'll be the first to admit to being a stodgy, groggy, grumpy old man when it comes to my D&D, I'd even say that it's not very "Sword & Sorcery," either...despite what (many of) these authors hope to emulate.

Because as discussed in my first post on the subject, much of D&D is inspired by fantasy fiction of the pulp variety...and in pulp fantasy you see PLENTY of deluded cultists following charlatans and false gods, but they aren't getting any magical powers by doing so. False priests don't get spells: they use tricks and psychoactive powders or rule through fear and tradition and superstition. Real magic linked to worship is generally called sorcery and rightly so, as it is linked to the favors granted by demonic entities...but such infernal divinities are still "divine," supernatural and extra-dimensional. Only divinities grant divine powers: when Jagreen Lern or Elric conjure in the names of their chaos gods, THEN magical stuff happens. 

But maybe I need to rein in a bit and bring this all back around to the subject at hand ("killing gods"). There is, I think, a certain prevalence or attitude or orientation in the Old School Role-playing circles that has wandered far afield from the game as it was originally envisioned. Maybe. Maybe I'm wrong. But here's how I see it:

• As Mike Mornard writes, the original designers "made up some shit they thought would be fun." It involved exploring strange environs, finding treasure, building worlds. It was inspired and influenced by adventure fiction, much of it "fantasy" in nature.
• As a game, D&D has a system; it has rules. It models something (a fantasy world of adventure) and the rules are applied to the thing it models (the fantasy world of adventure) up to and including things like "how/why a cleric gets spells" and "how many hit points a god like Zeus might have."
• That divine architect that Elric is always searching for? The supreme being that orders the lives of even the gods of his world? D&D has that, too: it's called the Dungeon Master. And just like Elric's "supreme being" (who would be Michael Moorcock...duh), the DM is not a creature to be encountered by the protagonists (in D&D's case, the player characters). The DM creates the world but is not OF the world. What will be encountered are game constructs, up to and including the gods that inhabit the game world.
• As a constructed fantasy world D&D has a cosmology. As a game that models a fantasy world, that cosmology can be exactly and minutely defined...right down to just how much damage Thor can do with a hammer blow, or how many greater devils inhabit the 3rd layer of the Nine Hells...should such info ever become necessary for play.
• The game (D&D) has parameters (structure) of play. It has assumptions and expectations of how play resolves.  These expectations of play resolution are determined by 1) the rules, 2) the way the rules model the world, and 3) the fiction that inspires the game...in that order. Don't (for example) tell me "well, Gandalf used a sword!" The inspiring fiction (#3) comes behind the rules (#1) and the modeled fantasy world (#2).

As originally conceived, Dungeons & Dragons was never about "telling stories." It was about playing a game of exploration and survival (adventure!) in a fantasy game world. However, some folks were quite unimaginative with how they worked within those parameters, creating murder-hobo funhouses of the poorest variety and this caused pushback in the form of front-loaded drama. We shall not wait for a story to emerge from our adventures! We shall make sure there is MEANING to these characters' (fake) lives!

Combine the success of that front-loaded drama (through company supported publications like Ravenloft and Dragonlance) with an imperative to cut anything perceived as controversial (i.e. impacting the bottom line) from a game now being marketed to children (this being the shift that began circa 1982), and one can readily see the consequences: we don't kill gods. We kill demons. We kill immortal liches. We kill creatures masquerading as gods. We kill surrogates in order to have our high stakes, high drama, emotionally invested play.

Because, originally, emotional investment in a character was mainly found in long-running (i.e high level) characters. And high level characters, by necessity, required greater challenges to stay engaged...tackling gods (modeled as part of the cosmology) and godlike beings (that giant ape from WG6) are a natural evolution of challenge for characters of the highest echelon, because lesser challenges don't cut it anymore. If you want to run a high level campaign, you're going to want to study up your copy of Sailor on the Seas of Fate because that's about "par" when it comes to suitable challenges. Good old Demogorgon has been a part of the D&D tapestry since 1976...and for good reason. 

[hell, I used to fight Demogorgon...on the playground...waaaay back before I ever laid eyes on ANY D&D book. Before I even opened my first box of the Dungeon! board game, even]

Not low level characters (I'm guessing).

Outside of WotC's latest-greatest editions, D&D designers have (mostly) moved away from front-loaded drama and railroad story arcs, but they've still passed some sort of threshold from which they can't seem to return. They want high stakes, high challenge, high weirdness in their adventure...but they don't want high level player characters. They want their players to continue playing "small ball" forever after, retiring (I suppose) should they ever, somehow, reach 8th or 10th level of play. "Too superheroic," is the refrain I hear. "The game is no fun after around 5th (or 6th or 7th) level."

Bull. Crap. But that discussion is for another post.

Throwing high level challenges (like godlings) into low level adventures is an attempt by designers to have their cake and eat it, too. It's an attempt to inject Elric-levels of amazeballs fantasy into the lives of grubby, Warhammer Fantasy-level adventurers in order to draw out low-level play while still keeping long-since-jaded players engaged with the game in front of them. Is that as bad as playing pre-generated snowflakes traveling the Dragonlance railroad? Absolutely not. But it's got to be grating after a while. It would certainly bug the shit out of me.

All right, that's it. I lied about this being the concluding post...just had too much more to say. The NEXT post will definitely be the conclusion to this series. 

Damn...I Hate It When I Do That

To anyone that downloaded my B/X conversion of N1:Against the Cult of the Reptile God, please be advised that the original module was authored by Douglas Niles (as I've blogged before), NOT by Lawrence Schick (who did write the excellent S1:White Plume Mountain). I was so anxious to upload it this morning that I didn't bother to review it very closely. My bad.

: (

B/X Against the Cult of the Reptile God

You all have been real swell about this week's rambling nerdiness regarding what's D&D, what isn't and how I can't even really hate 4E because I think it may be a fine (if limited) game, just not Dungeons & Dragons.

Thanks. And for being such good sports, here's that B/X conversion of N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile Gods I was promising, oh, way back in May, I think.

Sorry...I've been busy. And it's a LOT damn longer than my prior White Plume Mountain conversion. You can download it right here.

Now a few notes: you WILL need a copy of the original text/maps to make use of the conversion...no copyrighted material is presented, and unfortunately this is NOT a module that the WotC folks have seen fit to publish on their web site. Sorry, but the blog readers voted it in, so this is the conversion I did.

You will probably want to read this blog post about the clerical version of Animate Dead for B/X. If you don't want to read my "design notes," skip to the end where the spell is. Or you can just buy my soon-to-be-released B/X Companion, as the spell is in there, too.

The Reptile God is one, tough mother...tougher perhaps in B/X than in AD&D, though that's debatable. Personally, I think the end monster of the original N1 is a TPK waiting to happen, which is why (I think) the author added certain magical aids for the party. The modifications for B/X (there's no "globe of minor invulnerability" in B/X...but none needed in this module), should still allow a smart, determined party a fighting chance, but I can't honestly say...my two test runs ended in TPKs long before the players ever faced the final foe!

Good luck, have fun, hope you enjoy! And thanks again for reading!

: )

Post 500

When I first started this blog, I sketched out 100 possible post topics, just to make sure I had plenty to write about (I didn’t want the damn thing to peter out from personal disinterest like my last blog). So far, I’m sure I've hit at least half of the ideas on the list but my love of the topic is what has really kept me going. Well, that and the generally positive feedback from my readers. Thanks, folks.

I wish I had something more for you for The Big #500…unfortunately, a peculiar form of writer’s block/performance anxiety has affected me and I absolutely could NOT think of anything super-special to give y’all. Sorry.

To make up for it, I’ll try to make my post-500 posts this week stand out a bit.

My B/X conversion of N1: Against the Reptile God should be done sometime before Saturday…probably tonight if I’m lucky (turns out, I was NOT able to “spread out” on the plane as I’d like, making the project a real bitch to work on). It’s nearly completely compatible with B/X as is (low level AD&D generally is), though I had to dip into my B/X Companion monsters to stat up the Big Bad. Which makes the adventure pretty insanely hard for a group of low level characters. But what can I do? The original “reptile god” of the module was insanely hard for low level characters…so much so that Niles had to include a 7th level NPC magic-user (or a fudged spell scroll) to get the characters through the end. Having play-tested the thing now, I’m inclined to think Niles was a big fudger in his own games, or he was just a straight ignorant ass…OR he had an exceptionally skilled and cunning group of players. I’ve had the latter myself, but when they encountered an adventure this tough, they generally would “get going” (as in, move on to easier pickings). So it goes…I suppose I could make it a YOUNG naga (like I did with White Plume Mountain’s “young sphinx”). Hmmm…

I’d really like to do a post on Terminal Space and space RPGs in general…actually a whole series of posts on the topic. My B/X Star Wars RPG may have to wait until someone with the cash to pick up the license commissions me to do it…although I might make a free, short .pdf one of these days. But regarding Off-World RPGs in general (from Dune to Cowboy Beebop) I think there is a LOT to explore on the subject…and many ideas that I’ve been “saving” for my own RPG should probably be brought out for discussion.

I would also like to try my hand at least a couple conversions of the The Compleat Spellcaster, most likely the witch and the necromancer. Witches have been a subject of this blog more than once, and I’m hopeful I can deal with the subject in a way that ain’t too offensive to our Wiccan friends (I’m not too concerned about offending the Christians). Necromancers, though, are probably better as a monster than a character class. Though it pains me to admit it, my imagination fails at the idea of a non-Evil necromancer, and one thing I’ve come to see (and like) about all the B/X classes are their versatility when it comes to alignment. Yes, clerics might play differently depending on alignment, but they are not limited to a single alignment or pair of alignments in B/X (unlike every other edition).

Actually, come to think of it B/X already has a Necromancer class…it’s called being a Chaotic Cleric. TCSC’s necromancer is based on the cleric template anyway…everything else is just animating the dead and having long conversations with the deceased, something already available (at least in my Companion spell list). Everything else dead-related is just the Chaotic cleric doing magical research as per the Expert set rules. Guess I don’t need to convert that one after all!

Of course, I also want to do a little bit more design brainstorm, riff off a couple recent posts over at Save Vs. Poison (specifically Rifts and Vampire: the Cash Cow), and throw down a list of my soon-to-be-in-the-works-design-projects. Oh, yeah…and give you all some updates on the B/X Companion project (still waiting on ISBNs, but the cover art is looking FANTASTIC, and my “branding expert” and I talked about the symbol for my company).

All right…more on all this stuff later. Thanks again for reading, people.
: )

N1, B/X Style - 2nd Run

So we ran N1 a 2nd time today with a new group of adventurers...this time, in anticipation of more "action" there were a total of four 2nd level PCs, rather than two 1st level PCs.

It was still a bit of a comedy of errors.

Knowing what to expect ("I had a dream of all of this before!") the PCs decided to exactly re-trace their steps but deciding to take different choices at critical moments. This time, they would make sure to A) NOT drink the suspicious, probably poisoned wine, and B) keep a dagger secreted on the elf's person (for cutting any bonds should they end up bound hand-and-foot.

Good thing about the latter, too because although they didn't get knocked out by the grog, they still stayed the night at the Cultist's inn and after a brief battle found themselves once again tied-up in the cellar.

(there is no "assassin class" in B/X so the Snigrot and Desleigh are both thieves...even so Desleigh is a handful when characters can be blind-sided by other cultists)

Cutting themselves free, they managed to charm Snigrot and had him lead them deeper into the cellar in search of their purloined gear...and then the giant constrictor fell on the henchman, devouring him. The party decided to run for it rather than fight or sneak past the snake in the midst of its meal.

Climbing through the kitchen window they (interestingly?) decided to run back to the temple of Merrika to complain to Mishi who had twice now (in two separate runs) suggested the adventurers stay at the inn. Apparently they wanted to complain to her.

(I had the players dice to see if they remembered/recognized her armored form from the night-time attack but the elf was unable to roll under his 18 intelligence on a D20, and the players themselves weren't suspicious)

So she asked them to wait there while she went to "get help." Which they did. And she came back with Abramo the high priest a bunch of skeletons and the monks. Oh, what? You mean she's evil, too?!

Duh.

The magic-user used a sleep spell to knock out the wolves and servants clearing a way to the (now closed) gate. While the cleric turned the entire troop of skeletons and the elf daggered the single surly gardner that had not succumbed to the magic-user's spell, Burl the Burley opened the gates and the characters once again ran for it.

Straight to the (cultist-turned) constable.

It was like one nightmare after another. "Help us! Help us!" they cried, "Everyone's tried to kill us! Will you help us get our stuff back from the Inn?" Oh, sure, come on inside. "No way, we're just going to stay out here, we don't trust anyone." Okay, boys, maybe we oughta' just finish this out here (they were in the back lot).

The party decided to run (again). Donovan threw his spear +1 and Burl the Burley died, impaled. Then came a running hunt through the town as the bloodied characters would knock on doors, fail reaction rolls, and get said doors slammed in their faces.

Eventually Radagast the wizard went down with a crossbow bolt, and the elf ("Elfy Jr.") and cleric (Carl) found their way to Ramne's cottage, a small sanctuary in the eye of the storm.

Ramne wizard locked 'em in while he went to town to shop for gear. Elfy decided to brave the inn again, alone, using the old sorcerer's cloak of elvenkind...but after too many turns spent searching for secret doors in the python room, the snake finally smelled him out and he met the same fate as Snigrot.

Carl decided the town of Orlane could go to hell for all he cared.

Playtesting N1...B/X Style

Did I mention I'm a hack and a slacker?

Now I know that it's not cool to get too down on myself...after all, I'm providing SOME small measure of entertainment to the folks that read my posts. But I did say I would get a conversion of N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God out sometime soon, and I have not delivered.

Ah, well...what can you expect when it's all free?

Today, I've been playing ultimate frisbee (two intense games that both required showers), cabbed all the hell over Virginia, invented two new ways to play ping-pong (using a wall), chased (and bathed) a dog that had rolled in deer droppings, photo'd a deer, and consoled my wife who, it turns out, broke her foot while walking all over D.C. a couple days ago. Quite a full day really (besides eating...which I did a lot of...and explaining to a 16 year old the origin of Vlad Tepes and his relationship to the Twilight saga).

And yet I still managed to play a little B/X. Ahhh...dedication to the cause.

Ran a pair of 1st level characters through N1 (B/X style) today and the result wasn't pretty. Call it yet another TPK for yours truly, though our intrepid heroes didn't actually die. Rather, they suffered the proverbial "fate worse than death," which in this case consisted of being the living slave of a half reptile entity.

O the Humanity! Or (actually) the lack thereof!

I believe I mentioned this before...if not I should have...that N1 is an excellent module for experienced gamers that want to start a passel of new characters. Note the emphasis. Today's players consisted of rank novices and it showed.

I did my best to freak them out in the process...give 'em their money's worth, so to speak.

The thing with N1 is, it requires a plan of attack...unlike, say, T1 there's no major direction to go in. Characters need to explore the town and try to construct (or rather, "deduce") what exactly the hell is going on. The PCs in my game were more like, "where's the dungeon?" And in being led by the nose they were steered into a bad situation by cultists that drugged 'em, jailed 'em, then led them off to be "converted" into worshippers of the reptile god. Not a single saving throw was made successfully all game, and the end result was...well, about what one would expect from not making a single save all game.

MY mistake, as a DM, was thinking the PCs could handle an adventure like N1, simply because it's designed for "4-7 players of 1st through 3rd level." Had there been more PCs it would have simply been more lambs to the slaughter. Kids grown up on World of Warcraft (as these ones were) just don't have the necessary skills...or rather, they don't think the same as RPG players (which is a slightly nicer way of saying the same thing).

Where's the quest? What do I have to fetch and carry? What do I have to kill? Jesus H. Christ.

So they all ended up as slaves, which is fine by me, and they wanted to make new characters and try again, but instead we ate dinner and played more ultimate frisbee and then watched TV and talked...all of which was ALSO fine by me. I'm on vacation, after all.

But I do hope the rest of y'all have a bit more fun with this N1 conversion (hopefully finished by tomorrow). Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

[P.S. saw my first fire fly(s) today...don't know if anyone else noticed or not, but I thought it was pretty cool]

Just for Posterity

The top three poll results were:

#1 N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God

#2 Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits

#3 C1: Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

I almost didn't even add C1 to the mix because *blea-ach!* I am so sick of it, having run it so many times. I even converted it to 3rd edition (D20) back in the day, if you can believe it! It says something that I have memorized the spelling of "Tamoachan" that I can type it without having to check the damn wikipedia (or the module cover).

Anyhoo, the poll is coming down now...thanks for playing folks!

; )

Poll Closed - And We Have A Winner!

And wow! What a showdown! When I got up this morning, Queen of the Demonweb Pits was leading the pack, but Against the Cult of the Reptile God made up the difference and pulled ahead in the last couple hours. Wow...where were you guys all week?

So, in anticipation that either might win, I brought both modules with me on my trip. I am currently sitting at SeaTac Airport waiting for my flight to start boarding (in about 14 minutes). It's a six hour direct flight to DC, and I'm coffee'd up and ready to go. Who knows...maybe I'll get to both?

: )

Actually, I'm slightly relieved that N1 ended up winning...being a low-level game it will be an easier B/X conversion than Q1. After all, I haven't yet released my B/X Companion set, so you guys don't know what a level 16 character would look like, right?

; )

Ha!

Anyhoo...I'll try to get everything written up and ready for upload to Media Fire sometime this evening (assuming the Sheraton has WiFi...it should). Now the caveat: there will be no maps or text other than conversion notes printed as I don't want to infringe on WotC's copyright, so you'll need a copy of the original TSR module to make use of it. Unfortunately, it's out-o-print (though the bastards would be well-advised to re-release it...it's a damn dope adventure!), and a little tricky to find. It took me 20+ years to find a copy!

For the folks who didn't see their choice selected...sorry, maybe another time. I see only two people voted for me to chuck the B/X all together (thanks, Kris...I know you were one of them! Don't worry...I DO still want to throw the AD&D sticks with you! Later...).

All right, five minutes till boarding, and I've got to check a couple other things. Blog with y'all later! Prost!

Realizations

I had a couple minor epiphanies yesterday (what do you know…it was Wedesday, which is the day of thought as described by Wotan, Odin, and Mercury). Now in the spirit of Thor’s Day, I’ll be expansive and share ‘em with y’all.

#1 I might be past my prime. All these numerous aches and pains (and injuries) that seem to be taking forever to heal, not to mention my receding hairline, may be indicative of the fact that I’m on the other side of 36 and am not doing nearly enough to stay young…you know: yoga, vegan diet, fasting, abstaining from booze, living in the country and drinking pure, mountain spring water. I’ll need to ramp up my “healthful living” if I’m going to keep up with all those young bloggers around the sphere.

#2 Every single adventure module I dig, appreciate, or find myself inspired by was written BEFORE 1985. With the possible exception of Return to White Plume Mountain (1999) and maybe H2: The Mines of Bloodstone (1986)…but the former is based on my favorite original module and the latter seems mainly a pastiche of D1 and D3. Regardless, it’s fairly sad to realize that the Unearthed Arcana, possibly my favorite RPG book OF ALL TIME up till the age of 15 or 16 (really!) is the great dividing line between the gold and the dross…or rather “The Shit” and the shitty.

I should note that while the information from the UA was immediately incorporated (upon its publication) into my long-running D&D campaign, we (my friends and I) had mainly grown beyond modules (writing our own PC-specific adventures) at the time, so the drop-off in module quality was imperceptible. Oh, our co-DM continued to purchase some, but in general she cannibalized ‘em and made ‘em fit her own purposes. There was nothing I saw or read (or played or ran) after 1985 that really got me cranked the way those early adventures did. With the possible exception of the two modules I list above.

Why am I even looking at this? Well, hard-on-the-heels of yesterday's post I started thinking about the specific AD&D modules that inspired me. Yes that’s right: I wanted to post a NEW LIST! Whereas previously I listed my Top Ten D&D modules for ANY edition (and yet still none are later than 1985), this new list is AD&D only and may include modules that I haven’t actually played OR ran as the DM. This is purely inspirational stuff for me…i.e. it makes me want to play AD&D just flipping through ‘em or thinking about ‘em.

Top Ten Inspirational AD&D Modules

#10 WG4: The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun – I admit it, I have never played or ran this module. In fact, I’ve owned it for less than a year. And it looks DAMN tough to “solve” or “get right.” However, I have run S4 which also looked tough (in fact, no one I’ve run through it has ever survived to get to the deeper caverns) and this one is shorter, more focused and, hell, more scary. I love it.

#9 G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King – The G series did not make my Top Ten list of modules that I want to play, but the 3rd module of the trilogy is about as “D&D” as a module gets. Giants, Drow, scheming dwarves, red dragons, weird elder gods, chests full of treasure (and poison needle traps!), a river of lava…and three descending levels…this is the archetypal dungeon delve as far as I’m concerned, even beating the pants off B2. Plus, as far as ambience goes, darkness back-lit by the glow of magma is pretty rope-a-dope.

#8 & #7 A3: Aerie of the Slave Lords and A4: Dungeon of the Slave Lords – I wasn’t exactly sure how to rank these as (similar to WG4) I have never played/run them. Lawrence Schick’s A4 is truly inspiring…I only wish I had a group of players adventurous enough to try it out! And it does seem to be a fitting climax to the series. A3 on the other hand is one of the few valid arguments for the separation of race and class, as I’m not sure you could really have the same type of show-down with simple B/X archetypes (I’ll have to try re-writing it and see). However, it is the city of the Slave Lords that makes me want to play AD&D, as I can see a good group of players spending many sessions role-playing their explorations of the town…all those random encounter tables of AD&D get a chance to shine!

#6 S2: White Plume Mountain – some may think it’s strange that the module I’ve blogged about so much doesn’t crack the Top 5. The fact of the matter is I DO consider it one of the best written modules of all time (certainly it’s one of my favorites). But as far as INSPIRING me to play…well, maybe I’ve just ran it so many times over the years that it doesn’t give me the same juice as the next five on the list.

#5 N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God – this is the last adventure module on the list that I haven’t actually played or ran. However, for whatever reason, just holding it in my hands wants me to break out the PHB, roll up an elven fighter and equip him with ring mail and a long sword. Reading N1 I just think it is an excellent module for a group of experienced, MATURE role-players that want to start a new campaign with low level characters. There’s just so much more meat to it than the average low level adventure…it makes me want to start a campaign (case in point: I have run T1: The Village of Hommelet and it doesn’t make my list of inspiring modules, despite being excellent).

#4 S1: Tomb of Horrors – As with G3 and S2, I have plenty of experience with this module and a lot of feelings/memories associated with it. For that reason alone, it gets my heart racing to play AD&D. However, if I could find any players crazy enough to try it, I would jump at the chance to run it again. Hell, I’d even let them roll up characters using the Unearthed Arcana!

#3 D2: Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – it was tough figuring out which number D2 comes in at. I love the fish guys, I love the vaguely Lovecraftian nature of their slimy under-city, and the cover art by Roslov is VERY inspiring. As with G3, I find something very archetypally “D&D” about D1 and D2, but especially the latter. And as with A3, the inclusion of different classes for the KT in such an interesting fashion makes it tough to hang onto my “race as class” hardliner stance.

#2 I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City – now that I’ve got the first 8 listed, #2 on the list is really a no-brainer. The artwork alone (exterior and interior) shouts AD&D, and even the tasloi images (I am NOT a fan of tasloi) makes me want to run a game, let alone the yuan-ti (of whom I AM a fan). The module has everything one needs to run a short session, or a multi-session mini-campaign, and I totally dig on that. Even the pre-generated characters (including a bard, a druid, and a half-orc cleric!) are super cool. I will always remember I1 as the first module I read that included an evil wizard’s SPELL BOOK as part of the treasure trove (and probably the best treasure I’d ever seen). I don’t even think Gygax gave spell books to his Drow magic-users, a gross oversight if you ask me.

#1 Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits – I love this module. Every time I see it I want to start an AD&D campaign. If that’s not the definition of “inspiring” I don’t know what is. I know I’ve said elsewhere that White Plume Mountain may be the best module ever written due to its tight focus and great example of D&Disms, but this is probably my favorite module of all time. Truly. I don’t even need to HOLD the damn thing to get inspired…just seeing the ultra-creepy cover on display makes me want to play it. The map is a masterpiece. The interior art is excellent. The dimensional gates can provide years of adventuring. As with the Kuo-Toa, the Driders make a pretty fair argument for separating class and race (by the way, driders as a concept are probably one of my favorite D&D monsters of all time). Lolth is a badass…probably the coolest original monster entry of 1st edition AD&D, not based on a legendary or mythic figure (THAT would probably be Demogorgon). Even the NAME of the module is inspiring. It’s like the name for some 1981 heavy metal album (probably British, like Iron Maiden or Ozzie). And from experience, I can say that playing OR running this module makes me want to play MORE D&D. Honestly, this is hands-down the most inspirational AD&D module I own.

Happy Thursday, folks!

: )

Okay, Maybe Niles Ain't So Bad

Although many of my previous comments may seem unkind, I wasn't joking when I said much of Douglas Niles's work irritates me...especially my recently acquired X3:Curse of Xanathon. However, I admit that I did tie one on last night (karaoke debauchery) and some of my irritation may be due to a pounding head this morning.

Also, I found a little something-something to soften my critique of Mr. Niles.

Just finished reading N1:Against the Cult of the Reptile Gods...rather forced myself to read it, despite my boredom with the first few pages and my "irritation with Doug" in general. And guess what...I'm changing my tune. N1 is pretty darn good.

Now, I realize it was ranked 19th Greatest Dungeons & Dragons Adventure of All-Time Dungeon Magazine in 2004, but I personally dislike and/or take serious umbrage with many of the adventures ranked on the list. For example, I am arm-in-arm with the folks who feel each module should be judged by its individual merit, not with a "series-as-a-whole" approach. But just being on a Top 20 list is good enough reason to give the thing a fair shake (well maybe...The Gates of Firestorm Peak is ranked #11 and I've never even heard of this 1996, 2nd edition adventure).

So anyway, I bothered to finish reading N1, and it's pretty good. I still don't understand why there are no lizard men and how a spirit naga is connected to troglodytes (and why all the cultists are Lawful Evil when their "god" is Chaotic Evil).

Heck, at first I thought there were NO alignments in the module, as none are listed with any of the NPC stat boxes. However, a re-read of the blurb at the beginning quickly explained most folks were Neutral Good while most baddies were of the LE variety. However, before my re-read I was tempted to consider this a pretty cool innovation for a module from 1982...after all, it DOESN'T really matter what alignment anyone is...the bad guys are bad unless the PCs can break the evil spell, and the innocent victims are in need of the PCs' help regardless of their alignments.

Okay, so what did I like about the module.

Well, for one thing it doesn't suffer from the same "silliness" as X3. It is small scale (one town, a la Village of Hommelet) that is in trouble from a real menace that can operate on a town scale. And yet, the adventure has the potential to "scale up;" if the PCs fail in the mission, the bad guy has a plan to spread his evil influence over the next village (he even has his patsy set to start the black tide); the Cult of the Reptile God could transform into a mini-campaign in and of itself!

Likewise, should the PCs succeed in putting down the Cult, the module continues to act as a "mini-campaign setting" with notes on what happens afterwards, how the PCs can set-up base in the town, and other possible adventures around the area. That's a lot of "bang for your buck" from one module.

In addition, the subject matter is mature and dark. The PCs arrive in the middle of a hostile takeover, and the bad guys already have a good foothold. The villains are mean, mean, mean with realistic drives and sub-plots and plenty of potential ickiness (especially once the ensorcelled townsfolk are freed from their spell...lots of potential role-playing issues/drama to deal with in a campaign that doesn't simply treat the module as a single episodic adventure).

I like that. I like depth of play/design. I like nuance, I like possibility, I like "open-endedness."

And N1 IS original. It is different from T1's "re-kindled ancient evil" and any other "evil religious opponent" module you care to name. Hell, it's not every day low level characters get to bring down a god!

And the power of the "god" IS god-like for low level characters. Granted they get some much needed help from a crutch...er, "helpful NPC"...but it's still going to be a pretty grim battle, quite possibly involving a LOT of dead PCs.

Which to my mind is a good thing...encounters can be challenging without giving the Big Bad the farm in "special powers;" to a low level character, a perma-charm, a poison bite, and a handful of spells (not to mention 9 hit dice) is PLENTY to deal with. Throw in the rest of the setting (the mud and trogs and possessed cultists) and you make a VERY challenging adventure for low level characters...especially if they happen to be good-hearted ones interested in saving a few souls (rather than laying 'em out).

So Douglas Niles gets a pass from me after all, and has earned a bit of good will even. Along with his co-developer Allen Hammack, he's designed a very cool and thoughtful adventure module...one that I'd very much like to run sometime.

Earlier, I posted a B/X conversion for the AD&D module S2:White Plume Mountain, and I was asked if I planned to convert any other modules. Well, N1 is certainly in the running for conversion. It's pretty darn simple really (though I might remove the trogs in favor of lizard folk...I think of trogs more like those creatures in the film The Descent). The main challenge to this is the availability of maps and text for this out-o-print module (the D20 version of S2 is available as a free download from WotC web site, N1 is not). However, I think I'll at least do it for myself. If anyone else is interested in seeing my conversion notes, let me know and I'll upload a file at mediafire.

Prost!

Doug Niles Irritates Me

You know, most days I can think of something constructive to post, but for the last couple days, every time I've sat down at Ye Olde Laptop there's only one thing popping into my head: Douglas Niles irritates me.

Not the man, himself, of course...I've never met Mr. Niles and he's probably a swell guy. But for whatever reason, as an author he bugs me. I'm not even talking about his writing style (I wouldn't even know HOW to analyze that kind of thing...I'm neither an English teacher nor a pro critic). But his subject matter, the substance of which he writes.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here...well, besides the obvious title of the post; I guess I'm just venting a little bit. I picked up CM2:Sabre River in the game shop the other day, read through it, and tossed it back on the pile. It just seemed so damn boring and trite. I picked up N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God mainly because it represented a missing chunk of my past. I was even able to get the maps for it that had previously been missing. But I haven't finished reading it as I got bored just a few pages in.

And I think this is part of the reason I never finished reading it in my youth. Well, I'm sure that I was frustrated it was making reference to AD&D stuff that wasn't in my B/X rules, and it WAS pretty low level by the time I'd picked up the Players Handbook. But even still, I probably would have at least READ the module. And I didn't...I just wasn't wowed by the plot.

And now I have X3: The Curse of Xanathon and IT is missing all its pages from 15-18 (ugh!) including a couple map inserts. And in reading the thing, it just feels...I don't know, "mediocre," I guess. In some ways it feels similar to N1...an evil cult has moved into town and now everything's going to hell. You have to raid a bad temple.

But I don't like how it casts the Ethengarians (the Mongol-type people from Mystarra) as the bad guy...and worse that they're SNEAKY bad guys instead of ride-in-bows-blazing Scourge-of-God-type villains.

Then there's the un-killable Evil High Priest. I'm not sure why this is so irritating but I'll try to codify it. Let's see...okay, how about this:

- the guy is invulnerable to EVERYTHING, right? Period. It's not very subtle or clever.

- the only way for the players to find this out is by attacking the guy. There are no hints, no preparations that can be made, no nothing that occurs previously in the story.

- depending on how fast the players figure out their little problem, he could really do a number on them. Of course, he "delights in physical combat," so they only have to worry about him bashing them with his mace and not his high level spells

- during the encounter he does the comic book villain thing, giving the players hints on how to kill him...which, of course, is dumb

Basically the whole encounter is a bit of an F-You to the players, who then need to figure out (from the clues in the High Priest's chamber...you know, the chamber where he is invulnerably bashing them about?) where they're supposed to go to find his "life force" so he can be killed. And then there's another shrine/mini-dungeon to delve. And then it's back to the Evil High Priest. And yadda-yadda-yadda. Boring.

Then there's the whole "oh the Duke is crazy and he's expelled the dwarves and declared war on them" time limit thing. Basically, the players have three weeks to A) figure out the Evil High Priest has cursed the duke, B) figure out the EHP is invulnerable, C) go find his life force and return...or else the dwarves are going to march on the town and raze it.

This is DUMB. The whole adventure takes place in one small Ducal city-state in the kingdom of Vestland. Why would the entire army of Rockhome (the dwarf nation) launch an invasion just for a few insults? That would bring down the rest of Vestland on them, not to mention neighboring allies. And do the dwarves really give two shits about the crazy Duke? He hasn't launched an attack on them, he's just "declared a state of war exists" and threatened to shave the beards of any dwarf that doesn't leave town...and they leave town! So what's the big deal that would get the taciturn dwarves to mobilize in three weeks?

It's irritating. Unlike Mr. Cook, Mr. Niles does NOT unleash the potential of B/X game play with his module...he dumbs it down and makes me uninterested in the game.

When I put Sabre River back on the pile, I had half-jokingly told the proprietor that "I still had a bone to pick" with Doug Niles over the damn Dungeoneers Survival Guide...a hard back book for which I shelled out good money as a kid and never used, except for those irritating non-weapon proficiencies. I probably should have stuck with my instincts and skipped the other modules with his name on it.

I see from his wikipedia entry that Mr. Niles has published many fantasy novels of the Dragon Lance and Forgotten Realms variety. Somehow, this doesn't surprise me as both those series irritate me, too. Yes, I know that the man isn't responsible for either of these campaign worlds. I'm just not surprised that he's drawn to the subject matter...he and I seem to have very different tastes.

[okay, now that I've got all THAT out, maybe I can turn my mind to more constructive matters; sorry about that folks]

Crap-ola

Just discovered my copy of N1:Against the Cult of the Reptile Gods is missing its pull-out map of the temple. Thing is, when I was in the game shop picking through the modules I SAW the pull-out map stuffed into a different module with some other loose pages, but since I didn't know to which module it belonged (I've never owned N1) I didn't realize I was leaving behind an important component...after all, there were no missing page numbers to the rest of the module.

I'll have to get back to Gary's and see if Tim may have kept it (hopefully, it didn't get recycled).

Crap.

End of Innocence

No, no...nothing to do with Vampire the Masquerade.

I can still remember where I was when I was first introduced to Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, or very nearly anyway.  I'd been playing B/X for years, had even run a couple one-off games for older kids that were actually AD&D players (always wondered where they got that interesting blade barrier spell from...one of those weird supplements like the Rogues Gallery, perhaps?).

Actually, I was already using the AD&D Monster Manual, but I equated "Advanced" (as printed in bold right on the front) with Expert.  And, yes, I did consider myself an "advanced" DM...hadn't I pretty much memorized the Cook expert book (a lot easier to do when it's under 70 pages long)?  

As I may have mentioned earlier, there are several pit falls inherent in being a "self-taught" Dungeon Master.

Yes, yes, I'd already encountered some crazy rules in the Monster Manual (I pretty much ignored Magic Resistance), but it just never occurred to me that I might be playing with a completely different rule set.  Until this particular module.

I may have actually already suspected that "Advanced" and "Expert" were different, but it was confirmed one day after soccer practice (must have been about 11 years old) when my friend Matt, brought me a copy of N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God. Matt had been playing D&D with me for awhile now (we had met in Little League circa age 9 and he had moved to my school age 10).  I was the established DM of our group of friends and he wanted to know if I had this module so I could run it.

Matt was an "expert" player himself, having a Name level cleric with a good squad of devoted heavy cavalry guarding his stronghold (clerics always had it easy when it came to setting up shop...one of the few rewards for being the party healer, I suppose).  But he was no DM and no module buff.  While I was always eager to get my hands on a new module (not having a lot of ready spending money myself), I was displeased to note that the module was intended for low level characters (the N series being for "Novice," the adventure was for characters levels 2-4).  All the players in my campaign were far beyond the module specifications.

Still, I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I eagerly thumbed through the adventure...to find a bunch of weird stuff in it!  Half-elves? "Long" swords? "Ring" mail?! What the hell was all this?!

The mixing of the various classes and races (some of the NPCs were elven thieves or some such) was the dead giveaway that all was not cool in my D&D world.  I was disconcerted (not having ready cash for modules, I certainly didn't have the allowance to spend on new game books), and yet thrilled at the prospect...it was like a whole new gaming vista had been opened up to me; one that I truly had not known even existed.

It was shortly thereafter that I received my first DMG and my first PHB.  The first was a gift courtesy of my aunt's boyfriend(?!) who was a gamer himself, and just a generous soul.  Of course, he played 1st edition Dragon Quest, not D&D, so for him it probably wasn't much of a sacrifice.  The PHB had an illustration of Ringlerun on the cover and I got it either for my birthday or Christmas, I believe (shortly around the end of soccer season, so not too much time had passed).  Little did I know that the next four years or so would be the most intense role-playing of my young life.

We never did run N1; in fact, I never borrowed it, never finished reading it...too bad, really.  N2: The Forest Oracle was a pretty good adventure.